Faith & Trust

How to Get Out of Financial Strain

A man sought the advice of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. “Esteemed rabbi, I support a Kollel (where adults learn Torah as their occupation) and many high caliber men grow in Torah study there. But the financial burden is too great for me to bear. Every month I fear it will finish me off. I always find myself in constant fear of where the money for it will come from and most nights I have difficulty going to sleep because of this. I spoke to an expert who recommended I close the Kollel and get back my emotional equilibrium. Is this the right thing to do?”

Rabbi Auerbach thought a bit and replied: “Indeed you must get out of this pressure it’s overwhelming. But is closing the Kollel the only option? Allow me to give you another solution… Accept upon yourself this good habit. Go get a notepad and every day jot down the things that happen to you that you should be grateful for and thank G-d for them. This will be your ‘Thank You Notepad”. Every time you feel something went well or that G-d granted you success write it down. Before each time you pray take it out and contemplate the good things there for a few minutes so that in shemoneh esrei when you get to “We thank you G-d” you’ll concentrate on all those kindnesses and thank G-d for them. The more you get accustomed to thanking G-d, the more you will internalize that G-d gives you the strength to succeed in all your actions, and just as he did all these good things for you He will also help you support your Kollel…”

The man thanked the rabbi for the advice and immediately upon taking leave of the rabbi he bought himself the note pad and started using it as the rabbi instructed. “Just when I came to the grocery the truck came with a shipment of fresh milk”… “I noticed my son is doing very well in his Torah studies”…”someone surprised me with a 2,000 shekel donation to the Kollel”… even a small thing like “today I found my baby’s pacifier that was lost.”

The notebook worked wonders and the man regained his inner calm with Faith and Trust in G-d. The Kollel also got what it needed for fundraising suddenly became much easier.

Saying Thank You is powerful and it works. Through saying thank you, you connect to G-d, open the gates of heaven and fill your soul with faith and hope. All this helps bring on the success we all seek. This Hanukkah which are days of thanks to G-d, let’s open our own thank you notepads and write down all the great points of light in our lives and thank G-d for all of them!